1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display controlling apparatus, an image display controlling method and an image display controlling program, which can be employed particularly preferably in a technique for displaying a plurality of image data easily viewable by a viewer in an apparatus for displaying and observing digital image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the start of the digital high vision broadcast and spread of television receivers compatible to the high vision, dynamic and high quality video images can be enjoyed compared with the conventional ones. In contrast, according to the spread of electronic still cameras, more and more users enjoy electronic still images and video images displayed not only on a personal computer but also on a television monitor screen.
Then, in the case the user view a still image or a video image on the television receiver, in general, the user selects the data to be reproduced by viewing a list of thumbnails displayed on the monitor screen and selecting the thumbnail.
In contrast, recently, a memory with the memory capacity dramatically increased can be utilized, and thereby the number of the images to be stored is increased dramatically. For example, digital photographs of more than 500 pieces can be stored in a memory card. Therefore, it is not easy for a user to find out a desired image datum out of the image data of the large amount.
As a technique for arranging the image data of a large amount efficiently on a screen for facilitating the selection by the user himself, for example, the techniques disclosed in the patent document 1 (Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-306375) and the patent document 2 (Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 09-259130) can be presented. Among them, the patent document 1 discloses a technique for easily finding out desired data by moving thumbnail images while superimposing and displaying the same. Moreover, the patent document 2 discloses a technique for finding out desired data by displaying the image data in a three dimensional space (3D space) and moving the virtual view point.
However, according to the above-mentioned conventional techniques, since the thumbnail images are displayed while being superimposed, and thus the important portions for judging the photographs can be hidden.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 18, for example, in the case the photograph (a) and the photograph (b) are present as the thumbnail images, the image of the “running” children on the left side of the image is the important portion in the photograph (a), and on the other hand, the person on the right side of the image in the photograph (b) is the important portion.
However, in the case these photographs are displayed with the other photographs while being superimposed, as shown in FIG. 18, they may be displayed with the important portions hidden. Therefore, according to the inventions displayed in the above-mentioned patent documents 1 and 2, a method of judging the photographs for viewing the important portions of the photographs by the operation of scrolling the displayed images or moving the virtual view point positions by the user had to be adopted.